By Noelle Alviz-Gransee
The Kansas City Star
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Several patrons and passerbys ran toward the Family Dollar in Midtown after part of the roof fell in on Sunday afternoon to provide aid to the two who were trapped under the rubble.
Larry Banks, the man who died at the scene of the collapse, was alive when some of the good Samaritans first attempted to pull him out, multiple witnesses told The Star.
| WEBINAR: Command and control of large-scale fire incidents
Several of those witnesses said first responders at the scene made no efforts to render aid.
“He would’ve been alive if they would’ve gotten to him,” said his girlfriend Lauri Whisler. “They got to that lady first, didn’t even try to help him. Didn’t even try.”
But spokespeople from the Kansas City Fire Department and the Kansas City Police Department said they’re confident that the responders did everything they could.
Alayna Gonzalez, spokesperson for KCPD said in a statement Sunday that she couldn’t say for certain if Banks was alive when first responders got there. She said she was listening to the radio traffic when calls about the collapse came in and said both police and fire were on the scene quickly.
“If the deceased victim was still showing signs of life, officers and medical personnel absolutely would have performed life-saving measures,” Gonzalez said in a statement.
The Kansas City Fire Department responded to the reported building collapse in the 3700 block of Broadway Boulevard just after 2:45 p.m. Sunday. When crews arrived, they discovered part of the front facade of the Family Dollar building had collapsed.
Banks was declared dead at the scene, and one woman was transported to the hospital with injuries. Two others were treated at the scene but refused further medical attention.
Protocol for building collapses
Witnesses recalled police officers being the first to arrive at the scene, which is pretty normal, according to Sgt. Philip DiMartino, spokesperson for KCPD.
DiMartino wouldn’t speak about the Family Dollar case specifically because it’s an ongoing investigation, but said officers in general are trained in a variety of first aid measures and that police communicate with dispatch if they arrive first before medics to coordinate the best response.
“Officers carry tourniquets and can apply them to wounds on victim’s extremities,” he said in a statement Monday. “Officers will also apply pressure to wounds to slow the bleeding until medics arrive on scene.”
With tragic building collapses like Sunday’s, Michael Hopkins with KCFD said several things happen seemingly simultaneously as medics analyze the situation, establish a perimeter and attempt to treat victims.
The first thing firefighters and medics do, according to Hopkins, is verify the scene is safe. In an instance like what happened at Family Dollar, a big question they need to address is how likely a second collapse is.
From there, they move to prioritize patients by the severity of their injury.
“There are many factors that go into that process,” Hopkins said in a statement Monday. “What are the injuries? What was the mechanism of injury? Survivability? Once triage and on-scene treatments are accomplished you begin transporting patients out based on their triage status (severity of condition).”
The more severe cases are treated and transported first, and the least critical are removed from the perimeter, according to Hopkins.
“I am confident in saying that this along with many other tasks, to include an assessment of all victims, were completed and done so with the preservation of life as the highest priority,” he said.
The building collapse case was handed over to KCPD due to the fatality, which Hopkins said is standard. The investigation is ongoing.
City staff conducted an inspection on Monday and deemed the building dangerous.
The Star previously reported that a photo from an inspection last Tuesday showed the structure “tilting” and that a concrete pillar was never replaced after a car crashed into the Family Dollar in 2016.
©2025 The Kansas City Star.
Visit kansascity.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
